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Jason Koski/Cornell University
Ecolectro’s founders, Kristina Hugar, M.S. ’12, Ph.D. ’16, and Gabriel Rodríguez-Calero, M.S. ’12, Ph.D. ’14, have leveraged Cornell’s clean energy ecosystem to make their startup a reality.
When Kristina Hugar was working on her Ph.D. at Cornell, she wasn’t just doing science for science’s sake.
“I care very deeply about the environment and climate change, and I wanted to figure out a way to focus my career and life on addressing the defining crisis of our time,” said Hugar, M.S. ’12, Ph.D. ’16, whose dissertation research improved alkaline exchange membrane materials to make…
Dave Burbank/Cornell University
From left, Ray Jayawardhana, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences; Robert S. Harrison ’76, chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees; and Provost Michael Kotlikoff at Spring 2022 Advisory Council Dinner.
A $10 million gift from Robert S. Harrison ’76 will enhance the College Scholar Program in the College of Arts and Sciences and support undergraduate scholarships.
Harrison, chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees and former CEO of the Clinton Global Initiative, was a College Scholar during his time at Cornell, where he pursued an interdisciplinary program of study centered on government and…
Polaritons offer the best of two very different worlds. These hybrid particles combine light and molecules of organic material, making them ideal vessels for energy transfer in organic semiconductors. They are both compatible with modern electronics but also move speedily, thanks to their photonic origins.
However, they are difficult to control, and much of their behavior is a mystery.
…
NASA/JPL/Provided
Scientists have suggested sending an orbiter and probe to Uranus, as their top exploration priority. The voyage would conduct flybys and examine clouds, atmospheric structure, composition, the planet’s rings and moons.
Over the next 10 years, a collection of the nation’s top planetary scientists and astrobiologists – using suggestions from panels chaired by two Cornell professors – are advocating for exploratory voyages to Earth’s cold, distant solar-system planetary companion Uranus and the icy Saturn moon Enceladus.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Planetary Science and…
Courtesy of the artist
Lin Yilin, Safely Maneuvering Across Lin He Road, 1995, performance, 90 min, Guangzhou.
In the photo, the man’s forearms are muscular and glisten with sweat as he grips a cement block with one hand. He wears plain, loose clothing. He focuses intensely on his task, building a wall. In the background, the frame of a building looms and next to it a poster illustration of what it will someday be: the tallest skyscraper in Guangzhou, China.
This photo of a construction site does not…
Jason Koski/Cornell University
Roland Molina ’22 has dedicated himself to advocating for student veterans and strengthening the veteran community on campus as president of the Cornell Undergraduate Veterans Association.
Roland Molina ’22 did not enlist in the Marine Corps for the glory.
His motivation to enlist came from a much more unlikely source: the time he spent in Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals as a child.
Molina would often accompany his father, a 24-year U.S. Army veteran and immigrant from El Salvador, to the VA hospital. He would translate words, or help with paperwork, and observe those around…
This year’s new international exchange student orientation began as most events do on Zoom, with an air of hesitancy, cameras off and voices muted. By the end of the orientation’s “story circle” discussion, all participants had their videos on, openly sharing their experiences, hopes and fears about setting off into their first semester at Cornell.
Launched by the Office of Global Learning…
A sophomore and a two juniors have won Goldwater Scholarships, the top undergraduate award for students pursuing careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.
Jeffrey Backus, ’23 and Abhi Sarma ’24, both in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Briana Arquilevich ’23, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are among the 417 Goldwater scholars. Awardees were selected…
In 2020, nearly 17,000 people were reported victims of commercial sexual exploitation and human trafficking in the United States, though experts estimate the number would be higher if more people knew what to look for. Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) can be even harder to identify, as it so often involves exploitation by an adult who knows the child.
A collaboration between…
Cornell Human Sexuality Collection, Cornell University Library
Jessica Tanzer's photo of dancers from The Box, an all-genders queer nightclub in San Francisco.
From April 27 to 28, the “Radical Desire” symposium brings pioneering lesbian feminist scholars, publishers, and photographers to speak at Cornell, in celebration of library exhibits that highlight the archives of lesbian erotic magazine “On Our Backs” and to mark the 30th and 50th anniversaries of Cornell’s LGBT Studies and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs.
On April 27, 4 to 6…
The newly published Bipartisan Policy Review features the latest thinking on U.S. foreign policy by prominent policy makers, analysts, and academics.
The annual publication, now in its third edition, is produced by the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs (IOPGA) at the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.
“The Bipartisan Policy Review’s (BPR) mission is to give voice to…
A new sociology study has found that girls raised by Jewish parents are 23 percentage points more likely to graduate college than girls with a non-Jewish upbringing, even after accounting for their parents’ socioeconomic status. Girls raised by Jewish parents also graduate from more selective colleges, according to the study.
Researchers from Cornell, Tulane and Stanford universities…
Lindsay France/Cornell University
Associate professor Song Lin, center, pictured in 2017 with postdoctoral researcher Niankai Fu and graduate student Greg Sauer.
Song Lin, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, is being honored as an LGBTQ+ trailblazer by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, in a special Trailblazers issue.
“This collection gives voice to LGBTQ+ members of the chemistry community and celebrates their contributions,” said Tehshik P. Yoon, issue…
When the celebrated poet A.R. Ammons came to teach at Cornell in 1964, he was initially disappointed. Not in the university or the students or academic life, but in the geology. As he noted in an interview at the time, “I don’t understand all these rocks.”
Having just arrived from southern New Jersey, Ammons was accustomed to the Garden State’s tributaries, marshes and pinelands, and he had…
Marc Lacey ’87, the inaugural fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Visiting Journalist Program, has been named managing editor of the New York Times, along with Carolyn Ryan.
“Marc is not only a tremendously accomplished alumnus of the College of Arts and Sciences, but he continues to engage with us in meaningful ways – serving as our inaugural Distinguished Visiting…
Violinist Nanor Seraydarian ‘24 won first place in the 2021-2022 Cornell Concerto Competition in December. As winner of the Concerto Competition, Seraydarian will perform Ernest Chausson’s “Poème” as a featured soloist alongside the Cornell Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 24 at Bailey Hall. The concert is free and open to the public with no tickets required.
Seraydarian was…
Nature allows the storage and manipulation of data in new and powerful ways using quantum mechanics, and physicists are harnessing the exponential power of this technology by developing quantum computers using superconductors.
In the Spring 2022 Hans Bethe Lecture, physicist John Martinis will explain the basic concepts behind quantum computing, show recent data from a “quantum supremacy”…
Jason Koski/Cornell University
Qihao Li, left, Geoff Coates, the Tisch University Professor of Chemistry and Héctor Abruña, the Émile M. Chamot Professor in the Department of Chemistry, discuss hydrogen energy.
Cornell and two Cornell research-startups have joined a consortium that aims to propose a Northeast research hub to make hydrogen a viable, clean-energy alternative to carbon-based fuels.
The New York-led multistate collaboration is guided by Gov. Kathy Hochul and organized by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
With approximately $9.6 billion available…
Provided
Video Still from Patricia Domínguez's “Madre Drone”
Cornell Council for the Arts announces the fifth Cornell Biennial, featuring artworks, installations, and performances addressing the curatorial theme: “Futurities, Uncertain.” Curated by Timothy Murray, CCA Director and Professor of Comparative Literature and Literatures in English, the 2022 Cornell Biennial stages an artistic call and response to counter singular utopic models, colonial…
New research from Cornell scientists is exploring how human genetics impacts functions of the gut microbiome, and is expanding awareness of the role human genetics plays in shaping the microbiome.
The trillions of individual organisms constituting a person’s gut microbiome greatly impact metabolic function, disease and overall health. What has been less clear is how and to what extent the…
John Schwab/US Air Force
RQ-4 Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) at Beale Air Force Base, CA.
Armed drone strikes earn more public support and legitimacy when they have international approval from organizations such as the United Nations, according to a survey conducted by a team of Cornell researchers.
Drones that carry weapons are increasingly employed as counterterrorism tools, but nations use and constrain strikes differently. France, for example, submits its strikes to the U.N…
… this year, selected from nearly 2,500 applicants. The fellowships are awarded on the basis of prior achievement and … Popular Music, among other recognitions. He has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, … textblock … Musicologist and poet awarded Guggenheim fellowships …
When numerous people in Alejandro Martínez-Marquina’s hometown in Spain won a lottery game called El Gordo (The Fatty), he was fascinated by what his friends and neighbors did with winnings equivalent to $20,000 U.S.
Some chose to buy new cars, said Martínez-Marquina, a Klarman Fellow in economics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Others decided to pay off their home mortgages. Although he…
In a finding that has implications for the 2022 midterm elections, Cornell researchers found Russia tried to distract liberal voters during the 2016 presidential campaign with a seemingly innocent weapon – tweets about music and videos – taking a page from its domestic disinformation playbook.
The strategy resembles techniques used by autocratic governments that control their national media,…
Styrofoam egg cartons, hard plastic compact disc cases, red drinking cups and many other common products are composed of polystyrene, a type of plastic that makes up a third of landfill waste worldwide.
“In terms of plastic production and end-of-life waste streams, we are on the road to an unsustainable future,” said Erin Stache, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in…
Across languages and cultures, words that help direct caregivers’ attention are likely to be among the first children learn and use frequently, according to a new Cornell study that is the largest ever, by sample size, of early vocabulary development in an Indigenous language.
The early use of words like “this” and “that” has been documented in widely spoken languages such as English, Spanish…
Sheryl Sinkow/Cornell University
Left to right: Kraig Kayser MBA '84, Karl Hausker '79, Conor Hodges '21, Cindy Wolloch '64, and Itai Dinour '01
Growing up in a multiracial family in a highly-policed community, Conor Hodges ’21, the 2022 recipient of the Class of 1964 John F. Kennedy Memorial Award, has first-hand experience of the ways in which militarized police forces across the United States are used against low-income communities and people of color.
“To my family and neighbors, our nation didn’t seem interested in improving…
Carol Jennings/College of Veterinary Medicine
Carol Anne Barsody, left, imaging specialist Michael Haner and Frederic Gleach ready the mummy bird for radiographs and a CT scan at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals.
Over the last several months, a certain bird – believed to be a sacred ibis – has been drawing a lot of attention, and covering a lot of ground, from the College of Arts and Sciences to the College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Engineering and, later, the Lab of Ornithology.
Not bad for an animal that has been dead and mummified for more than 1,500 years.
The so-called “mummy bird” has…
Lynn Ketchum/Oregon State University/Creative Commons license 2.0
Zebrafish
Math is the language of the physical world, and Alex Townsend sees mathematical patterns everywhere: in weather, in the way soundwaves move, and even in the spots or stripes zebra fish develop in embryos.
“Since Newton wrote down calculus, we have been deriving calculus equations called differential equations to model physical phenomena,” said Townsend, associate professor of mathematics…
Provided
Cornell professor Jamila Michener testified March 29 before a congressional committee.
Cornell professor Jamila Michener testified March 29 before a congressional committee that universal health insurance coverage would not only address health inequities among people of color, but strengthen the U.S. democracy.
Michener, associate professor of government in the College of Arts and Sciences and a faculty member in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, told…
The Cornell Department of Music presents Ariana Kim, playing the Korean traditional zither (gayageum) and violin, and Young-Nam Kim, playing violin, on Saturday, April 16 at 7 pm in Anabel Taylor Chapel.
“Gayageum, Meet Violin” is a recital and discussion featuring a preview performance of a new composition “Apba Hagoo, Nah Hagoo” by Ariana Kim for gayageum and violin. The concert…
Three project teams aiming to expand their networks of partners and peers have been awarded Public Issue Network Grants from the David M. Einhorn Center for Community Engagement.
The grants, which are offered for the first time this year, support faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners as they weave broader, more effective networks of potential collaborators, coordinate…
Christopher Parzyck/Provided
An artist’s conception of the single-crystal alkali antimonides photocathode, which is 10 times more efficient than existing photocathodes.
Photocathodes are materials that emit electrons when illuminated by light, and are vital to the performance of some of the world’s most powerful particle accelerators.
But due to poor crystalline properties, photocathodes have yet to realize their full potential. Cornell researchers are addressing this limitation.
A team of researchers at Cornell’s Center for Bright Beams, a National…
Faculty seeking to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for their LGBTQ colleagues and students have a new resource guide available to them.
Issued last week by the Provost’s Office of Faculty Development and Diversity and the Cornell LGBT Resource Center, the LGBTQ+ Resource Guide for Faculty and Staff offers best practices and tips, such as using gender-inclusive greetings in…
Junpeng Lai/Binghamton University
An orb-weaver spider perched in the hub of its wheel-shaped web. The “claw” at the tip of each leg is “hooked” gently onto strategically placed strands of web silk and positioned to “listen” to the miniscule vibrations induced by sound waves that pass through the web.
Charlotte’s web is made for more than just trapping prey.
A study of orb weaver spiders finds their massive webs also act as auditory arrays that capture sounds, possibly giving spiders advanced warning of incoming prey or predators.
In experiments, the researchers found the spiders turned, crouched or flattened out in response to sounds, behaviors that spiders have been known to exhibit…
Despite persistent gaps in workforce participation, when it comes to wanting to work the gender gap has all but disappeared over the last 45 years, says Cornell sociologist Landon Schnabel.
In America, women are now just as likely as men to report working because they want to – not because they must, according to the new study by Schnabel, the Robert and Ann Rosenthal Assistant Professor…
Scott Pitnick/Syracuse University
Fruit fly sperm with heads labelled with a red or a green fluorescent protein, swimming inside a female fruit fly’s reproductive tract.
Long considered exclusively male, it turns out that sperm become partly female after mating, according to a new study of fruit flies.
The paper, published March 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, revealed that by four days after a sperm enters a female, close to 20% of its proteins are female-derived.
The researchers discovered that first seminal fluid…
Provided
Mark Kreynovich ’19 and Dillon Carroll ’20 in Ukraine in 2018
Mark Kreynovich ’19 and Dillon Carroll ’20 were first-year roommates and best friends at Cornell, and share a commitment to service, along with a birthday: Feb. 25. They’re also now sharing an extraordinary journey.
Kreynovich, who was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and Carroll, who grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, dropped everything to travel to Eastern Europe shortly after the Russian invasion…
Noël Heaney/Cornell University
Natalie Wolchover speaks March 15 in Lewis Auditorium.
Writing about science in easy-to-understand terms “is a good exercise for you and good for the world,” award-winning journalist Natalie Wolchover told close to 100 people gathered in Lewis Auditorium on March 15 for her master class on bringing science to life through storytelling.
“Clearly, there’s a lot of work to do for science communicators to improve literacy and it’s an important…
Abruña Group
A completely precious metal-free alkaline fuel cell using Co-Mn spinel oxide cathode and carbon-coated Ni anode
A nitrogen doped carbon-coated nickel anode can catalyze an essential reaction in hydrogen fuel cells at a fraction of the cost of the precious metals currently used, Cornell researchers have found.
The new discovery could accelerate the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells, which hold great promise as efficient, clean energy sources for vehicles and other applications.
It’s one of a…
Serge Petchenyi / Cornell University
Classics students explore Sage chapel with instructor Verity Platt.
The Active Learning Initiative (ALI) has awarded a new round of grants, helping 5 departments redesign courses to implement research-based active learning strategies and create sustainable improvements to undergraduate education at Cornell.
ALI is a collaborative effort: faculty work closely with ALI postdocs and experts from the Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI), and departments are…
Collaborative research is as fundamental to life at Cornell as hourly chimes, Big Red hockey and Slope Day. It’s a commitment the university takes seriously – and now it’s expanding.
Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff has announced that Artificial Intelligence, Design + Technology and Quantum Science and Technology will become part of the “Radical Collaboration Drives Discovery” initiative,…
ESO/Babak Tafreshi/Provided
The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope looks skyward during a bright, moonlit night on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile’s Atacama region, one of the highest and driest observatory sites in the world.
On the evening of Dec. 12, 2021, Cornell astronomers Gordon Stacey and Thomas Nikola were dangerously short on time. They’d been awake for nearly 24 hours, with another all-nighter ahead of them.
The skin on their hands had dried out and cracked from living for five weeks at a dizzying elevation in Chile’s Atacama Desert. And they were short-handed, a crew of two instead of the usual four or…
One day while in graduate school at Cornell, physicist Eve Vavagiakis '14, M.S. '17, Ph.D. '21 came home from her particle physics class with neutrinos on the brain. Captivated by the quirks of these mysterious particles and excited to be learning the science behind them, she jotted down a rhyme: “I’m a neutrino, and I am so small, that matter to me barely matters at all.”
The rest of the poem…
In a diverse society, attitudes and perspectives on police and policing vary based on lived experiences.
Published research in 2020 found that Black and white Americans, when asked to take the perspective of a juror who would have to decide whether an officer should be indicted, reached different conclusions, even when presented with identical evidence. But does the language used to…
Sreang Hok/Cornell University
Touchdown oversees Giving Day festivities in Willard Straight Hall.
On Cornell’s eighth Giving Day, held March 16, 15,905 alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents and friends from more than 80 countries made gifts totaling a record-breaking $12,268,629.
“The thousands of gifts made on Giving Day will help Cornell continue to do the greatest good for our students, and in the world,” said Fred Van Sickle, vice president for alumni affairs and development (AAD)…
Sreang Hok/Cornell University
Michael Reynolds, M.S. ’17, Ph.D. ’21, postdoctoral associate in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the College of Engineering, demonstrated an origami model of a nanobot.
From a nanoscale “brobot” flexing its muscles to a discussion of the artistry of scientific images, participants at a March 9 event got an up-close look at how quantum science and nanotechnology are shaping our lives.
“Arts Unplugged: Science of the Very, Very Small” included both online and in-person activities, centered around 11 TED-style talks given by faculty members in the College…
The Cornell Center for Social Sciences has announced its 2022 spring grants for faculty. The list of awardees includes faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Douglas Kriner, Government
Presidential Politics in an Era of Democratic Disruption Conference
This conference examines how presidential politics have helped precipitate and in turn been shaped by troubling trends in…
Jeff Viano/Military Service Digital Photographic Files
The US Navy's Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) parked on a runway in preparation for a simulated Navy reconnaissance mission
Policymakers, legislators and military strategists must prepare for the consequences of other countries and actors such as the Islamic State using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and others, according to panelists in a Cornell discussion March 14.
“We’re here to make sense of this evolving technology,” said panel moderator Sarah Kreps, the John L…
Does language shape thought? Do the languages we speak affect how we live our lives? These are some of the oldest questions in the cognitive and social sciences, and a handful of high-profile research articles in the social sciences have argued that language systematically affects people’s values, beliefs and behaviors.
A new linguistic study, however, sounds a skeptical note, arguing that…
